The trap of spending more than we need to by shopping online

ARE shoppers spending more than should because they are being bombarded with great deals on offer?

FRANTIC festive shoppers will be running around like headless chooks in the final week before Christmas Day in a desperate bid to jam pack their festive stockings.

But have many stopped to actually think carefully about what they are spending their hard-earned cash on or are they merely racking up more credit card pain that will leave them knee deep in revolving debt in 2018.

Racking up credit card debt at this time of year can be easy to do.

You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t seen the giant force online shopping is having, with many of us time-poor Aussies complaining we are too busy to even scratch ourselves so how can we possibly find time to stomp through crowded shopping malls to fill our shopping baskets.

But I do wonder how many of us are only buying what we actually need, whether it is via the click of a mouse or instore.

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In the last few weeks my email inbox has been madly pinging day and night, overflowing with deals and also newspaper and TV advertisements with one-day only discounts, special offers, free shipping offers, you name it.

Shoppers need to have restraint otherwise they can quickly blow their budgets.

Anything to get me to either to trawl through shopping websites and madly pick up so-called bargains, or alternatively rush out to my favourite stores and snare that bargain.

While I can pat myself on the back for paying my credit card off each month many of us can’t say the same thing, Reserve Bank of Australia figures show Aussies owe $51.2 billion and $31.6 is accruing interest.

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So sadly many of us are spending up money we simply don’t have.

But if I am really honest I know I’ve made purchases in the past few weeks I didn’t really need.

I’m confessing to pouncing on those “never-seen before” type deals that get my heart rate pumping and my credit card itching to be swiped.

Many retailers have special deals at the time of year in pre-Christmas sales and then Boxing Day deals.

One of my favourite clothing labels Ted Baker, ah yes, unfortunately it’s not a cheap and nasty label I love, had a great decent sale a few weeks ago so I thought I’d better snap up their stellar deals and purchase a Christmas “party” dress that I had to have.

About $250 later I walked away about 50 per cent happy and 50 per cent annoyed — the happy part was because I’d scored a bargain but the annoyed part was because I kept asking myself “Did I really need that dress?”

The answer is “no.”

While being alerted to getting great deals ahead of Christmas has been a great way to fill the stocking on a budget and start and finish my Christmas shopping in November, there’s no doubt I’ve been a marketing dream because I’ve simply had a case of FOMO (fear of missing out) on those must-have bargains.

December and January are the worst of months of the year where we many of us spend frivolously but it really does pay to keep a checklist of what you are spending and question yourself on whether you really need it.

Merry Christmas shoppers!

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Originally published as The trap of spending more than we need to by shopping online